I'm not sure if this is the right thread to ask this! Hopefully someone might be able to help/advise. Here's the story!

A few months ago, I found out about a possible book to translate, and I wanted to try my hand at it so I sent the author my sample. It turned out, the author really liked my work, but then I decided that I was not the right person for the job. He did try to get me to think about it for a while, but still I said no! Well, later on, he got back in touch with me saying that he finally got it translated, but was hoping that I might have a look at it and do editing…in other words he wanted the style to more match what I did in my sample. I told him I’d feel uncomfortable doing it because I already had my own style and voice, and this translation was COMPLETELY different from mine (mine was a lot better, but I didn’t tell the author this!), and I did not want to offend the other translator or his output. Again, he really wanted my style for his book, so I told him it would be more than just “editing” and I would like to have a co-translation credit. After he said that this would work, I kinda decided that maybe this project was meant to be and told him that I’d would do it. My question is, since I already read most of the book and did a 3-page sample, and because going through this “foundation translation” (which needs a lot of reworking in some areas) will require me to do language-to-language comparison (I already found mistakes), how should the credit be shared? Would it actually be “Translated by XX and XX” (is a co-translation credit common?) or should it be something else “Translated by XX / Edited and Revised by XX”? It’s a bit of a complicated situation!

Thank you for your input!

[Edited at 2015-08-20 12:50 GMT]

[Edited at 2015-08-20 12:50 GMT]

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ChananZassItaly Local time: 06:41Member (2014) Italian to English + ...

Go for a double billing

Aug 20, 2015

I mean, ask that your name be added to the "Translated By" credit.
"Edited and revised," etc. does not seem to reflect your contribution.

Demand double billing and have a signed contract that specifies this term. Otherwise you may find yourself doing the work and denied credit at the end.

You may also consider registering your translation with the Library of Congress, for example.

[Edited at 2015-08-20 17:51 GMT]

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I had already asked that I'd be co-translator and the author said that both he and the translator were fine with that. I just wanted separate verification that the situation I explained merited it That it's just not me editing, but going over and revising it with a fine tooth comb, checking the original text at the same time!

By the, do you know if a "double billing" is not so uncommon?

[Edited at 2015-08-20 18:31 GMT]

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